Statesmen Leave with League Silver in Heartbreaking Fashion

William Penn University Athletics

Rock Island/Sterling, Ill.–The William Penn men’s indoor track and field team led for much of the league meet, but a catastrophic mistake kept the program from securing gold at the Midwest Collegiate Conference Championships Friday and Saturday.

The Statesmen, who finished second to St. Ambrose by just 5.5 points (205.5-200), went down to the wire to try and claim their first MCC crown since 2005 and their first indoor league title ever. Unfortunately, the incredible effort was not enough.

William Penn had a fairly comfortable advantage entering the final three events of the Championships (3,000-meter run, 4×800-meter relay, 4×400). Then tragedy struck. The squad needed a high finish from Ochaung Akway (Sr., St. Paul, Minn., Physical Education) in the second heat of the 3K and got it. Akway edged out his SAU competitor, but immediately after he crossed the line, a celebration ensued as would be expected.

Unfortunately the celebration spilled over onto the finish line. Although his teammate did not impact the race (was not in the way of other finishers), Akway was disqualified as WPU was found guilty of inadvertently tampering with the finish line and its camera. Therefore his 10 points for having the best time in the event were wiped away and so was the Statesmen lead.

The squad had to switch gears and fast, going from the hunted to the hunter. William Penn was successful in narrowing the gap with a win in the 4×8 (8:27.45) to force a winner-take-all 4×4. The Statesmen led in the early going, but could not hold off the Fighting Bees as the squad placed third with a time of 3:28.27, just .86 seconds behind SAU’s winning time.

All was not lost–not by a long shot–as the team’s second-place finish was layered with almost too many scorers to count. Therefore, the easiest way to include them is by separating the meet by event types.

Sprints/Mid-Distance

Behind MCC Track Athlete of the Year Alex Edwards (Sr., Knoxville, Iowa, Secondary Education), William Penn was great in the short races. Edwards, now a three-time AOY, won the 400 (49.74 seconds), 600 (1:19.75), and 800-meter (2:01.40) events and was also a member of the winning 4×8 squad.

Romel Marzette (Jr., Oskaloosa, Iowa) was WPU’s lone placer in the 60 (6.99 seconds), but
CJ Watts (Jr., Rockville, Md.) and Neiman Thompson (Jr., Rockville, Md.) did well in the next three competitions. Watts was third in both the 400 (50.46) and 600 (1:23.22) and fifth in the 200 (22.94), while Thompson was fifth in the 600 (1:24.04), sixth in the 400 (51.36), and seventh in the 200 (23.10).

Payton Busch (So., Centerville, Iowa) joined Edwards as an 800 scorer by finishing seventh in 2:05.90.

Distance

Although Akway’s 3,000 did not count, WPU did well in picking up plenty of points in the longer runs. The junior also took third in the 5,000 (16:25.81) and fifth in the one mile (4:43.03).

Saromo Mugisha (Sr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Business Management) matched him with two high placings as his 9:42.86 5,000 time was fifth and his 4:44.04 one-mile time was sixth. Tyler Connelly (Fr., Trenton, Texas, Software Engineering) also got on the board in the one mile at 4:50.57, while Yonas Desta (So., Salt Lake City, Utah, Biology) was seventh in the 5K at 16:57.92.

Hurdles

Charlie Rachford (Fr., Agency, Iowa) and Markenson Charles (So., Lehigh Acres, Fla., Industrial Technology) went 1-2 in the 60-meter hurdles with times of 8.70 seconds and 8.74 seconds, respectively.

Relay

WPU picked up substantial points in the distance medley relay by crossing third in 11:17.57.

Jumps

The navy and gold feasted in the field events as well with Cornelius McCastle (So., McKinney, Texas, Industrial Technology) taking the other huge honor as MCC Field Athlete of the Year. The sophomore topped the high jump (6-7) and triple jump (45-7.75) fields and was also part of WPU’s 4×4 team.

McCastle was joined in the triple jump by Marzette (4th, 44-0), Joshua Rankin (So., University Park, Ill., Sociology) (6th, 41-7.25), and Jaylin Thomas (So., Baton Rouge, La.) (8th, 40-10.5). Thomas was also second in the long jump at 22-0.75, while Marzette was the bronze medalist at 21-11.

Throws

Kalob Gist (So., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Business Management) bettered teammate Derek Seddon (So., Knoxville, Iowa, Physical Education) in the shot put with a winning toss of 48-8; Seddon was next at 47-10.5. Seddon was not to be outdone as he crushed his own school record with a weight throw of 53-10.25 that placed him third.

Derek Robinson (Fr., Jenks, Okla.) also produced twice, taking fifth in the shot put at 45-9 and seventh in the weight throw at 44-9.75, while Aaron Seddon (So., Knoxville, Iowa, Physical Education) was eighth in the weight throw (43-11.25).

For his work in leading the Statesmen, Head Coach Allen Friesen was tabbed as Co-MCC Coach of the Year along with SAU’s Dan Tomlin.

“I am so proud of our guys,” Head Coach Allen Friesen said. “They battled through a lot of adversity and still almost won the championship. Even though we did not bring home the title, we competed like champions all weekend and these guys should be very proud.”